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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS, 
Shelf _JSkL 



UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



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EDUCATION FROM CONTACT 
WITH THINGS 



v 



EDUCATION FROM CON 
TACT WITH THINGS : : 

AN ADDRESS 



DELIVERED AT THE OPENING OF THE SIXTY-FIRST ANNUAL FAIR 

OF THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE, MONDAY EVENING 

OCTOBER TENTH EIGHTEEN HUNDRED AND 

NINETY-TWO 



BY 

/ 
S. S. PACKARD 



* 



PRINTED UNDER THE DIRECTION OF THE 
BOARD OF MANAGERS 



J 



NEW YORK 

1892 



"~jb 






COPYRIGHT, 1892, BY ROBERT RUTTER 



GILLIS9 BROTHERS 

400 A 402 WEST 14TH STREET 

NEW YORK 



AMERICAN INSTITUTE 

1892 



BOARD OF TRUSTEES 



J. Trumbull Smith, 

Chas. McK. Loeser, 

Chas. F. Allen, 

James G. Powers, 

Edward Schell, 

Thomas Rutter, 
William H. Gedney, 
Alexander Knox, 
William Dean, 



President. 
Vice- President. 
Vice-President. 
Recording Secretary. 
Treasurer. 
Zachariah Dederick, 
James De Lamater, 
Walter Shriver, 
William A. Camp. 



MANAGERS OF THE SIXTY-FIRST EXHIBITION 
John S. Roake, Chairman, 

Robert H. Shannon, Vice-Chairman, 



Alex. M. Eagleson, 
George Whitefield, 
John H. Walker, 
Robert Rutter, 
J. W. Fellows, 
Alexander Agar, 
John P. Chatillon, 



Daniel D. Earle, 

Charles Gulden, 

Joseph T. Bedford, 

Louis H. Laudy, 

Thomas J. Fitch, 

Frederic H. Evans, 

Chas. Wager Hull, ex-officio. 



Chas. Wager Hull, General Superintendent. 
John W. Chambers, Secretary to Board of Managers. 



AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 

3D AVENUE, BETWEEN 63D AND 64TH STREETS. 



New York, October 19, 1892. 
A T a meeting of the Board of Managers of the Sixty-first 
^*" Annual Fair of the American Institute, held last evening, 
the following Resolutions offered by Mr. Robert Rutter were 
unanimously adopted : 

Resolved : That the thanks of the Board of Managers be, 
and they are cordially tendered to Professor Silas S. Packard 
for the brilliant, interesting and instructive address delivered in 
the American Institute Hall, at the opening of the Sixty-first 
Exhibition of the American Institute, and that Mr. Packard be 
requested to furnish a copy of his address for publication. 

Resolved : That the above resolution be spread in full upon 
the Minutes of the Board, and that a copy be forwarded to Pro- 
fessor Packard. 

John W. Chambers, 

Secretary. 



ioi east 2 3rd street, 
New York. 

October 21, 1892. 
Gentlemen : 

"W'OUR characterization of my address is not as I would word 
A it ; but as you have the courage to print the address, I ought 
not to complain. Whoever reads it can put his own estimate upon 
it. Your request flatters me, and I gladly comply with it. I only 
wish the address was better, but as that would require another 
person to prepare it, I accept the situation and thank you most 
kindly. 

S. S. Packard. 
Robert Rutter and others, 
Board of Managers 

Of The American Institute Fair. 



A CONDENSED HISTORY 

OF THE 

AMERICAN INSTITUTE 

OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK 

AND ITS 



EXHIBITIONS ^ v . v 

^ X\f\ 



FEW enterprising citizens, in the year 1828, met in a 1 
small room in Tammany Hall and organized the ■"""- \ 



American Institute, and in 1829 a charter was granted 
by the Legislature of the State of New York, under the 
title of " The American Institute of the City of New York." 

Its objects are to encourage and promote domestic industry 
in this State and the United States, in Agriculture, Commerce, 
Manufactures, and the Arts, and any improvements made therein, 
by bestowing rewards and other benefits on those who shall make 
such improvements, or excel in any of the said branches. 

The first trustees and officers were William Few, President ; 
John Mason, First Vice-President; Curtis Bolton, Second Vice- 
President; Peter H. Schenck, Third Vice-President; Enos Bald- 
win, Fourth Vice-President ; Anson Hayden, Fifth Vice-President, 
and John B. Yates and John A. Sidell, Secretaries. 

Mr. Thaddeus B. Wakeman was very prominent as one of 
its founders. In fact he may be styled its father, and was its Cor- 
responding Secretary for eighteen years. He died in 1848. The 
Institute, to mark its appreciation of his services, erected a monu- 
ment to his memory in Greenwood Cemetery. 

The Hon. Henry Meigs was always active in the affairs of 
the Institute ; he was its Recording Secretary for seventeen years, 
and delivered a number of addresses at the Fairs. 



8 



A CONDENSED HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE 



Mr. Edwards T. Backhouse was its faithful Treasurer for 
sixteen years from 1843 to 1858. 

Among the many gentlemen who devoted much time to the 
Institute in its early days, we must mention the following: 



Benjamin Aycrigg, 
Thomas M. Adriance, 
Joseph Blunt, 
Neziah Bliss, 
John A. Bunting, 
George Bacon, 
Thomas Bridgeman, 
George F. Barnard, 
Adoniram Chandler, 
Clarkson Crolius, 
Edward Clark, 
John Campbell, 
Joseph Cowdin, 
Joseph Curtis, 
William S. Carpenter, 
Sylvester R. Comstock, 
Thomas F. De Voe, 
George C. De Kay, 
George Endicott, 
William Ebbitt, 
Isaac Fryer, 
F. W. Gessenhainer, 
Joseph Francis, 
Robert M. Hoe, 
Thomas W. Harvey, 
Charles Henry Hall, 
William Hall, 

James N. 



William Inglis, 
Jeremiah Johnson, 
David R. Jaques, 
Robert Lovett, 
Ralph Lockwood, 
William B. Leonard, 
Livingston Livingston, 
Benedict Lewis, Jr. , 
James J. Mapes, 
Peter B. Mead, 
Edward D. Plimpton, 
David Meredith Reese, 
J. Owen Rouse, 
John A. Sidell, 
Thomas B. Stillman, 
Jos. P. Simpson, 
James R. Smith, 
Edwin Smith, 
Martin E. Thompson, 
John Travers, 
Joseph Torrey, 
James Van Norden, 
Edwin Williams, 
Andrew Williams, 
Henry M. Western, 
Edward Walker, 
Nicholas Wyckoff, 
Wells, Jr. 



The monthly meetings of the Institute were held in Clinton 
Hall, then located in Beekman Street, corner of Nassau Street. 
It was found necessary that the Institute should have an office to 
transact its business; a room was hired in Liberty Street for that 
purpose. In 1834 the Institute removed to No. 41 Cortlandt Street, 
occupying the two parlors, and an office was established under the 
title of Superintending Agent, with a Salary of $1,000 per annum. 



A CONDENSED HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE 9 

The Institute remained there two years, and here the Farmers' 
Club was organized. Requiring more accommodation, the Trustees 
leased the first floor of No. 187 Broadway, opposite John Street. 
This gave ample room for the Library and a Repository of Models 
which had just been established. The Institute remained in this 
building two years, when the Trustees petitioned the Common 
Council to give the Institute the use of a court room that had 
been vacated in the old Alms House Building that had been pre- 
viously used as a Museum in the Park, in the rear of the City Hall, 
on the land now occupied by the County Court House. The 
petition was granted and the room was fitted up. This gave in- 
creased accommodations for the Library and for the meetings of 
the members and for the Farmers' Club, and a new organization, 
formed at the suggestion of Prof. James J. Mapes, called Conver- 
sational Meetings, at which he presided. Afterwards the name was 
changed to the Mechanics' Club. When the Institute removed to 
the Cooper Union it was rechristened the Polytechnic, presided 
over for many years by Prof. Samuel D. Tillman. 

To make room for City officials, the Institute was obliged to 
vacate these rooms in 1848. The first floor of No. 333 Broadway 
was temporarily secured at a rent of $1,000 per annum. The Li- 
brary had to be boxed and stored. At this time the Institute met 
with a severe loss in the death of Mr. T. B. Wakeman, its Corre- 
sponding Secretary and Superintending Agent. At the next an- 
nual election in May 1849, Gen. Adoniram Chandler was chosen 
to fill the vacancy. 

One of the notable things the Institute did at this time was 
the purchase, for $45,000, of the brown stone front building 
No. 351 Broadway. This building Mr. A. T. Stewart had 
erected for his store, but he never occupied it, having se- 
cured the lots on Broadway from Chambers Street to Reade, on 
which he put up the white marble building, now let for offices. 
The Institute, by great economy, had accumulated $17,000, the 
Trustees paid $15,000 down and gave a mortgage for the balance 
$30,000, which mortgage has been satisfied. This building having 
a good store to rent, gave the Institute three floors 25 x 84 for its 
use. The first floor was occupied by the officers and a meeting 
room for its members and the clubs, the second floor for its Library 
and Reading room and the third floor for a Repository of Models. 

The Trustees were offered a high price for the rooms occu- 



IO A CONDENSED HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE 

pied by them, and Mr. Peter Cooper, who had just completed the 
Cooper Union, held out great inducements for the Institute to take 
rooms there, which were accepted. It remained there until 1885, 
when it was obliged to vacate, in consequence of the extensive 
repairs required in that building. So, after half a century, the 
Institute again found a resting-place in Clinton Hall, which was for- 
merly the Astor Place Opera House, the scene of the riot in May, 
1849, that building being located in Astor Place, near Broadway. 
A lease was taken for five years of the first floor and part of the 
second. This was a very central location. At the end of the 
lease, the owners decided to tear this building down. 

The Trustees then secured the present rooms in the building 
Nos. 111-115 West Thirty-eighth Street, owned by the Metropoli- 
tan Telephone and Telegraph Company. 

One of the principal means to accomplish the objects of the 
Institute was the holding of Exhibitions, or, as they were then 
called, Annual Fairs, in which Inventors, Manufacturers and 
others could exhibit their various productions. 

The first Fair was held in 1828, in Masonic Hall, then stand- 
ing on Broadway, nearly opposite the New York Hospital, at the 
head of Pearl Street, and the Executive Committee having charge 
of the Fair was composed of Joseph Blunt, H. M. Solomon, 
Thomas S. Wells, Clarkson Crolius, James Benedict and Oliver 
D. Cook, Jr. This Exhibition was very successful, and after 
holding six Fairs there, it was found necessary to secure more 
ample accommodations. After examining various locations, 
Niblo's Garden was selected for its seventh Fair, notwithstand- 
ing great doubts were expressed as to its accessibility, it being 
deemed by many too far out of town. The Fair was, however, 
well patronized that year, and the Exhibitions became very popu- 
lar until the place was consumed by fire in 1846. 

Castle Garden, on the Battery, then a fashionable resort for 
our citizens, was next selected, and the Fairs were held there 
every Fall until 1853. 

The Exhibition of the Industry of all Nations was opened in 
the Crystal Palace in 1854, on Reservoir Square, in Sixth Avenue, 
between Fortieth and Forty-second Streets. After its close the 
American Institute procured it for holding its Exhibitions, which 
were held there in 1855, '56, '57 and '58, when it was destroyed 
by fire on the afternoon of October 5, with all its contents. This 



A CONDENSED HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE II 

was a severe loss to the American Institute, and was thought 
by some to be its death blow. Notwithstanding this disaster, the 
managers held an Exhibition the next year in Palace Garden, in 
Fourteenth Street, near Sixth Avenue. The Institute, at great 
expense, made many improvements in the building, and held 
Fairs in it for several years. 

In 1863, the Exhibition was held in the Academy of Music, 
Fourteenth Street and Irving Place. 

In 1869, the Institute secured the large structure on Third 
Avenue, between Sixty-third and Sixty-fourth Streets. This 
building had been erected for a Skating Rink. To this the Insti- 
tute have added three large buildings, the whole covering forty 
city building lots, extending from Third to Second Avenues. 

During the Exhibitions, addresses were delivered by promi- 
nent citizens of the United States, the anniversary address during 
the third annual Fair by the Hon. Edward Everett, of Boston, 
Mass., was a masterpiece of oratory. It was afterwards pub- 
lished and passed through a second edition. 

John Mason succeeded Mr. Few as President, and James 
Tallmadge followed Mr. Mason, holding place until 1846, when 
Mahlon Dickerson became President, holding office for two years, 
when Gen. Tallmadge was again elected, and served until '53, 
dying while in office. 

Among the Presidents of the Institute have been Robert L. 
Pell, James Renwick, Gen. William Hall, Horace Greeley, Wil- 
liam B. Ogden, Prof. F. A. P. Barnard, Orestes Cleveland, Na- 
than C. Ely, Cyrus H. Loutrel, Thomas Rutter and J. Trumbull 
Smith, who was elected in '89 and is still in office. 

The American Institute introduced to the world, Morse's 
Telegraph. A large quantity of wire was run round Niblo's Garden 
to show its operations. Here also Col. Samuel Colt exhibited 
his revolving Fire Arms which are known throughout the civilized 
world. Joseph Francis also exhibited his corrugated Metallic 
Life Boats and Life Saving appliances. In 1888 in con- 
nection with the Chamber of Commerce the American Institute 
petitioned Congress to recognize the invention of Mr. Francis, 
who had been acknowledged by all the European Governments. 
This petition was warmly advocated by the Hon. Wm. M. Evarts, 
in the Senate and by the Hon. Abram S. Hewitt, in the House of 
Representatives, which resulted in a vote of thanks by Congress, 



12 A CONDENSED HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE 

which ordered a Gold Medal to be struck in his honor. This re- 
ward has gladdened the heart of the inventor who is now in his 
Ninety-second year. 

Col. Richard M. Hoe early exhibited his Lightning Printing 
Press which has caused such a revolution in newspaper publica- 
tions. Col. Samuel Colt introduced at the Exhibition at Niblo's 
Garden a Submarine Torpedo to be fired by Electricity, and wished 
the Institute to give a practical test of its efficiency. The man- 
agers made an arrangement with the lessees of Castle Garden to 
carry the same into effect. An old hulk was purchased and 
anchored in the bay, the torpedo was placed, and on a signal being 
given, the torpedo was fired and the vessel was entirely de- 
stroyed. 

When the Exhibitions were held at Castle Garden the man- 
agers, for several years, established boat races, to give the young 
Whitehall boatmen an opportunity to try their skill. The principal 
prize was a new Whitehall boat. These races always created a 
lively interest. 

Many modest men, who would have remained in obscurity, 
have made fortunes by having their skill and ingenuity brought 
prominently before the public by the great facilities afforded them 
by the American Institute. 

The Exhibitions are held under the direction of a Board of 
Managers, elected annually by the members. 

The articles on exhibition are classified under seven depart- 
ments, which are again divided into seven groups. The classifica- 
tions are as follows : 

i. Department of Fine Arts and Education. 

2. Department of the Dwelling. 

3. Department of Dress and Handicraft. 

4. Department of Chemistry and Mineralogy. 

5. Department of Engines and Machinery. 

6. Department of Intercommunication. 

7. Department of Agriculture and Horticulture. 

In connection with the Fairs, the American Institute has held 
eighteen Exhibitions of Live Stock from 1838 to 1859. The Exhi- 
bitions of 1857 and 1858 were confined to Fat Cattle. 

These Exhibitions were held for some years on the ground on 
which the Fifth Avenue Hotel now stands, which was then "out of 



A CONDENSED HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE 1 3 

town." On this ground stood a famed hostelry, known as Madison 
Cottage, kept by Corporal Thompson; this was the stopping 
place for the Broadway stages. 

The Cattle Shows were also held on Hamilton Square, and on 
Hamilton Park, in Third Avenue. 

During the years 1868 to 1872 four courses of Scientific Lec- 
tures, delivered by some of the best talent in the country, were 
held in Steinway Hall, Academy of Music and in the large Hall 
of the Cooper Union. These Lectures proved too Scientific, and 
although the members of the Institute with their families were 
admitted free, they were very slimly attended, and after deduct- 
ing the receipts at the doors from non-members cost the Institute 
$6,784.02. 

In addition to its valuable Scientific Library, there are four 
sections, viz. : 

1st. The Farmers' Club, under the direction of the Committee 
on Agriculture, which meets the first Tuesday of each month at 
2 o'clock, P. M., at its rooms Nos. 111-115 West Thirty-eighth 
Street. 

2d. The Polytechnic, under the direction of the Committee 
on Manufactures and Machinery, which discusses Scientific Sub- 
jects, the examination of New Inventions, etc. ; it meets at the 
same place on the third Thursday of each month, at 8 o'clock, 
P. M. 

3d. The Photographic Section, under the direction of the 
Committee on Chemistry and Optics, which discusses all matters 
in relation to Photography and the action of light — this Section 
meets at the same place on the first Tuesday of each month, at 8 
o'clock, P. M. 

4th. The Electrical Section, under the direction of the Com- 
mittee on Electricity. This Section meets at the same place on 
the second Wednesday of each month, at 8 o'clock, P. M. 

All these meetings are open to the public. 

The present number of members is about fifteen hundred. 

One of the notable things that the Institute feels proud of, is 
the action it took in procuring the passage of the Act creating the 
Natural History of the State of New York. After two or three 
years of persistent petitioning, the law was passed. The publica- 
tion of these reports occupy twenty-two 4to volumes, and is a 
proud monument of the State. 



14 A CONDENSED HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE 

The Institute is governed by a Board of Trustees consisting 
of thirteen members, of which the President, two Vice-Presidents, 
and two members are retired and elected annually. 

It is very gratifying to state that during the existence of the 
American Institute it has never had any defalcation by any of its 
officers or employees, or any misappropriation of its funds. 

The Institute is now holding its Sixty-first Annual Exhibition. 

Chas. Wager Hull is the General Superintendent, and John 
W. Chambers is the Secretary of the Board of Managers, a posi- 
tion he has filled for fifty-eight years. 

John W. Chambers. 



EDUCATION FROM CONTACT WITH 

THINGS 



AN ADDRESS DELIVERED AT THE OPENING OF THE SIXTY-FIRST 

ANNUAL FAIR OF THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE, MONDAY 

EVENING, OCTOBER IO, 1892. 

BY S. S. PACKARD. 

Ladies and Gentlemen: — 

THE office that I am called upon to perform to-night is a 
difficult one; and I am told by the gentlemen who 
have invited me to stand before you, and, as it were, 
touch the spring which is to set this vast machinery 
in motion, that it will be neither wise nor prudent to attempt any- 
thing like an extended address. They assure me that those who 
have attempted it have generally failed — that the forces of nature, 
and especially of machinery, are against them, and that the exper- 
ience of most of the speakers who have passed the ordeal is aptly 
expressed by the modern phrase, "monkeying with a buzz saw." 
This fact is so well understood that the managers have great 
difficulty in finding men who are brave enough, or foolhardy 
enough, to assume the task, and so, they have to take whomever 
they can get. That is why I am here. 

But, being here, and being a schoolmaster, with all the assur- 
ance and all the egotism of that class, I don't like to throw away 
the opportunity of saying just a word, whether it can be heard or 
not, and whether it will be heeded or not. To a schoolmaster 
who honors his profession by believing in it and acting from it, 
most human efforts take on an educational aspect. The world 
itself becomes a school, and men and events, teachers. And 
surely an exhibition such as this can have no higher mission 
and no nobler purpose than to quicken intelligence and add 
to the sum of knowledge ; and in the brief space that has been 
given me for this preparation, I have endeavored not only to 
draw upon my imagination for a reasonable output of these sixty- 



1 6 EDUCATION FROM CONTACT WITH THINGS 

four years of uninterrupted life which this organization has en- 
joyed, but to learn in what best and broadest way it has fulfilled 
its mission ; and how we, who are of it, and who believe in it, 
may help it to even greater usefulness. 

The American Institute was established, according to its 
formula, to " encourage and promote industry in this State and 
the United States, in Agriculture, Commerce, Manufacturers, and 
the Arts, and any improvements therein, by bestowing rewards and 
other benefits on those who shall make such improvements, or excel in 
any of the said branches. " 

It will be seen that the wise and good men who promoted this 
enterprise — and whose names are among the most distinguished 
in the history of our city, — had a wholesome knowledge of human 
nature, and they discerned in that early day what we now so well 
understand, that the selfishness of men may be used to serve un- 
selfish ends. 

It would be a pleasant task for me to present the charms of 
this great Exhibition as a thing of itself — to speak of its many- 
sided attractions as something offered to the public simply as an 
object-lesson in Science and Art; to comtemplate this beneficence 
as springing from the hearts of men who seek only the good of 
others. But after all, it is gratifying to know that enlightened 
selfishness is the great motive power in human progress ; and the 
founders of this organization did not reason falsely when they 
held out substantial inducements in the way of personal pride and 
personal advantage to those who should "excel" in any of the 
branches sought to be advanced. 

It is in no sense unworthy of men that they like to be at the 
head of things ; nor that when they get there, they like to have it 
known. There may be persons — possibly some in this room — 
who care only for the good that comes into the world, desiring 
neither the power to do good, nor the recognition for having done 
it ; but such persons are out of place in this practical age. 

HOW BEST TO ENCOURAGE INDUSTRY. 

The American Institute was established "to encourage and 
promote industry," and it wisely reasoned that the best way to en- 
courage industry was to make it both honorable and profitable. 
The farmer who was so fortunate as to raise the biggest pumpkin, 



EDUCATION FROM CONTACT WITH THINGS 1 7 

or to be the owner of the finest hog, had, in the view of these 
sagacious men, no right to keep these products of his better 
methods secluded upon his own farm, but owed it as a duty to 
himself and his neighbors to let them be seen ; and in order that 
he might be encouraged to keep ^on raising big pumpkins and 
fine hogs, he was decorated with a badge, which made him ever 
afterwards a marked man, and set upon him the seal of great ex- 
pectations. Not only was he by this act distinguished from his 
neighbors, and made to feel that distinction, but he was set aside 
for better things in all his future life. Henceforth, big pumpkins 
and fine hogs must not be an exception but a rule with him, and 
his neighbors, stirred by his example — perhaps moved by envy at 
his success — would begin to look after their own farms; and the 
neighborhood would gradually put on a new aspect. Fences 
would be straightened up, new barns and out-houses appear, the 
dwelling made a fit habitation for man, and the community encour- 
aged by example and emulation to make the best of God's gifts. 

The manufacturer and the mechanic, each proud and jealous 
of his own work, could find here the opportunity for comparison 
and investigation, and a short road to the appreciation of his 
fellows. And thus, through motives of self-interest acting in the 
individual, the higher interests of the community would be con- 
served and the world itself made better. 

But the founders of this institution saw further than this. 
They saw in it not only an incentive to industry by competition, 
but the means of a great education to the people ; and it is this 
aspect of the case that presents itself as most worthy of consider- 
ation. 

The world is awaking to the fact that the eye is the great 
educator, and that things are the prime factors in education. 
Books and theories and philosophical deductions have their place 
in the curriculum, but their place is not always at the opening of 
the ways. It was the falling of an apple that led to a knowledge 
of the great cosmic law of gravitation ; and but for the rattling 
of a tea-kettle lid, we might not to-night be holding this anni- 
versary. The child likes first to "see the wheels go round," af- 
terwards he may be led to inquire why they go round. 

EVOLUTION OF THE PULLMAN CAR. 

Not many years ago a gentleman boarded the train at Buffalo 
for a night trip to Albany. There were no sleeping-cars then, 



1 8 EDUCATION FROM CONTACT WITH THINGS 

and the best that the night traveler could do was to double him- 
self up on the hard seats, or rest his weary head upon the back of 
the seat in front, with the imminent danger of breaking his nose 
or his neck. As this gentleman stepped upon the platform, he 
was offered for a quarter of a dollar a simple device called a 
''head-rest," consisting of a piece of webbing with a hook at one 
■end, to be fastened to the seat in front, the other end to be held 
in his hand or fastened to his own seat, affording thus a very- 
comfortable resting-place for the head. He bought the head-rest, 
and found it well worth the investment. And as he enjoyed the 
unusual luxury, he reasoned thus to himself: " If a man will 
gladly pay a quarter of a dollar for a contrivance like this, that 
gives him only the privilege of resting his head, why would he 
not just as gladly pay a dollar for the chance of resting his whole 
body, and getting, not forty winks of sleep at a time, but a full 
-night's rest ?" And upon this hint he acted. He purchased an 
unused car and fitted up stationary plank berths, which he cov- 
ered with narrow mattrasses, and got the privilege of putting his 
car on the night train between Buffalo and Cleveland, accepting 
as his return the extra fair which the traveler might be induced 
to pay. He took passage in the car himself, that he might hear 
what the travelers would say. They said it was "pretty good; 
but when the fellow was about it, why didn't he provide a decent 
bed, with sheets and pillows, and charge accordingly ?" " Then, 
for the first time," said Mr. Pullman, who told me the story, "it 
came to me that the people who travel on railroads will pay any 
price necessary to secure comfort, or even luxury." And out 
of this reflection was born the idea of the Pullman Car — and out 
of the idea of the Pullman Car has grown the idea and the fact 
of absolute luxury in American traveling. And if anybody wants 
to know what this luxury is, let him try to squeeze a little com- 
fort out of railroad traveling in Europe, where the Pullman sys- 
tem is not in use. Thirty years ago, a millionaire, a railroad 
official, or a high public functionary, traveling from New York to 
Chicago, could not buy with all his money, nor secure with all 
.his influence, a comfortable seat on any train ; and if he made a 
continuous trip — which would require two whole days — he would 
need to change cars at least twice, and to get what sleep he could 
-catch by cramping his limbs and body into neck-breaking atti- 
tudes on a hard seat. Now, if he would visit the other side of 



EDUCATION FROM CONTACT WITH THINGS 19 

the continent, he orders his special train, as he would his car- 
riage, and rides in the midst of comfort and luxury that puts to 
blush the wildest stories of the Arabian Nights. His moving 
palace combines parlor, dining-room, smoking-room, bath-room, 
library and sleeping-room ; and he speeds along the continuous 
steel rail with scarcely a jar, at the rate of forty miles an hour, 
reaching the end of his 3,000 miles of travel in three days — 
greatly refreshed by the journey. And all this, because an en- 
terprising and thoughtful man purchased a 25-cent head-rest of 
an importunate peddler. 

THE TYPEWRITER. 

A very short time ago, as it seems to me, I saw for the first 
time, in this room, a little instrument manipulated by a young 
lady, which was able to produce with reasonable speed, and in 
good form, a page of printed matter. It was called a Typewriter, 
and was considered a curious toy. By-and-by it began to find 
its way into business offices, and men employed it in certain 
kinds of copying which required legibility, and eventually used 
it sparingly in their correspondence, — very sparingly at first, 
for the man at the other end might not like to have it sur- 
tmised that he couldn't read writing. But the man at the other 
end soon got used to the printed letter, and liked it for its great 
legibility and exactness; and the man at this end began to dis- 
cover that it was easier to talk a letter than it was to write it out 
with a pen; and bright young ladies were found — plenty of them — 
who could listen to this talk, and reproduce it " like a book " ; and 
all at once a new vocation sprang up, and the little writing 
machine which interested us here as a pleasing toy, has become a 
recognized power in the land; and the bright girl who wrought so 
deftly has become historical as the pioneer in an honored profes- 
sion. I was thinking of this as I was dictating these words to 
my stenographer, and recalled the steps as I had witnessed them 
— and in my way helped them — of the evolution of the Type- 
writer; and I gathered a few facts that interested me, and per- 
haps they will you. The Typewriter was invented in 1868. 
During the five succeeding years there were a dozen instruments 
made by hand. In 1875 the first perfect working machine was 
made. In 1880, about one thousand were sold. In 1890, 
20,000 were sold ; and this single machine is being manufac- 



20 EDUCATION FROM CONTACT WITH THINGS 

tured now at the rate of ioo a day. This is, of course, gratify- 
ing to the manufacturers ; but I don't speak of them. I am much 
more interested to know that while this industry gives constant 
employment to 3,000 persons, in keeping the market supplied, it 
also gives employment to 100,000 operators, mostly girls. I am 
speaking, remember, of one machine. If all the other machines 
together employ half as many operators, there are 150,000 men 
and women profitably and pleasantly employed through this sim- 
ple invention — at least three-fourths of them being young ladies 
who are earning on an average $12 a week; the most of whom 
would otherwise be idle or earning a pittance at uncongenial 
work. But it will not do to stop here. If there are to-day 150,- 
000 stenographers who are writing the letters that would other- 
wise be written with a pen in the hand of the merchant or the 
lawyer, there are 150,000 busy men, more or less, who are re- 
lieved from the mechanical drudgery of writing these letters — 
to say nothing of the hundred thousand perplexed recipients, who 
would otherwise be vainly wondering " what that fellow means to 
say " — and thus relieved, this army of busy men can put their ac- 
tive brains to better use. And as I thought this over, I said, 
*' Verily, the poet of my childhood was right. It is indeed true 
that ' Large streams from little fountains flow,'" and the transition 
from the picture of the bright girl rattling the keys of a typewriter 
to amuse the spectators at the American Institute to the hundred 
thousand bright girls in all parts of this favored land earning their 
own living and making the world the better for it, seemed to me 
a fit incident with which to garnish this dull address. 

THE TELEPHONE. 

But my memory has become alert, and it brings before me 
another picture, which is that of a crowd of curious sight-seers in 
this Hall collected about a table, each holding to his ear a bell- 
shaped tube, fastened by a wire to an instrument in the centre of 
the table. It is the experimental stage of the telephone, and a 
quartette of singers in a little room in the Tribune Building are 
regaling these delighted listeners, six miles away. 

It seems such a little while ago that this occurred, and yet so 
much has the telephone become a part of our domestic and busi- 
ness life, that it is difficult to believe that we were ever without 
it. At the time of which I speak, there was no telephone line in 



EDUCATION FROM CONTACT WITH THINGS 21 

existence, and it was an even question whether it would ever be- 
come a practical thing, or ever be made to pay. And when I tell 
you that there are to-day in New York and suburbs, 30,000 tele- 
phone instruments in use; that in New York alone there are 40,- 
000 miles of underground wire, and that it is estimated that over 
60,000,000 messages are sent over these wires every year, the sig- 
nificance of the little experiment which I have described, and 
which the youngest of my hearers ought to remember, will be ap- 
parent. I saw a man only yesterday who proved to me conclu- 
sively that he had lost a half-million dollars by not investing in 
Telephone stock when it was below par. And I saw another man 
last week who had convinced himself, and came very near con- 
vincing me, that in less than ten years not only would we be able 
to call up our friends 500 miles away, and talk with them through 
a transmitter, but that we should be equally able to summon them 
into our presence and see them face to face. It is scarcely worth 
while for any of us to treat this prediction as a freak of the imag- 
ination, for within our own lives we have witnessed quite as 
strange reversals of all that we know or feel to be the orderly 
plan of nature. 

PIONEER WORK OF THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 

To those of us who can remember when there were no rail- 
roads in this country; no telegraphs; no general application of 
steam, either to locomotion or machinery ; and who have wit- 
nessed the rubbing of Aladdin's lamp, with the transformations 
which have followed, there are no predictions of future magnifi- 
cence too startling for credence. And it is pleasant on this occa- 
sion to recall the fact that in much of this evolution the American 
Institute has had a hand. Being among the earliest associations 
in this country to promote public exhibitions of industry, it has 
not only quickened enterprise and invention by bringing the fruits 
of such industry within its own walls but it has furnished an ex- 
ample to the country and to the world, the influence of which can 
never be measured. The World's Fair of 1854, the Centennial 
Exhibition of 1876, and the Columbian Exposition now in the hearts 
of all the people, are but expansions of the idea which in 1828 
established the American Institute. And what have not these 
exhibitions done for the country, and what may we not expect 
as the outcome of the efforts now being put forth in Chicago ? 
The Centennial Exhibition marked a new departure in industry 



22 EDUCATION FROM CONTACT WITH THINGS 

and art, and gave to the country an impetus which has not yet 
lost its force. The great picture galleries, thrown open to the 
people, were such a school of Art as the world had not before 
seen, and these alone did more to educate us away from our in- 
tense utilitarianism and to put us in the way of better thinking 
and better living than all the books and preachers that had gone 
before. Previous to 1876 the art of decoration was unknown in 
this country. The people were color-blind. Then, a man could 
send home a new dress for his wife of his own selection, without 
danger of being arrested upon his threshold for constructive fel- 
ony ; and if it pleased him to buy a piece of furniture for his best 
room, he was not in immediate danger of indictment for murder 
in the second degree, because it "killed" everything else in the 
room. Before 1876 the mission of Oscar Wilde would have been 
an intrusion and a bore; but the great object lesson of Philadel- 
phia made him instead, an apostle of "sweetness and light." 

THE KODAK. 

Before 1876 if a man wanted a picture he would have to buy 
it, or get an artist to paint it for him. Since then has come upon 
us, like a thief in the night, the dry plate and the Kodak, and 
every man is his own artist. Hitherto, the secrets of the mysteri- 
ous art have been held by professional photographers who laid 
their tribute upon the pockets of the people with unsparing hand ; 
now the profession lift their hats to the hundred thousand ama- 
teurs that have descended upon the green places of earth like 
the locusts upon Egypt. And the amateurs, who have their own 
ideas about when and how to "touch the button," have almost 
forced the people who walk upon the surface of the earth, subject 
to their "snap shots," to comport themselves with seeming pro- 
priety, not knowing at what inopportune moment they may stand 
in the focus of a lens, and be pilloried for all after-life. 

But the Kodak is hot to be blamed for its questionable use in 
the hands of its sometimes unwise operators, but rather to be 
praised for its share in the great work of education by contact. This 
pervasive little instrument has done much to make life sweeter. 
It has given a new zest to traveling, and new eyes to travelers. 
The man who is watching to get a snap shot at Nature must keep 
his eyes open, and he will not be long in coming to an apprecia- 
tion of its moods. His very blunders will school him in the effects 



EDUCATION FROM CONTACT WITH THINGS 23 

of light and shade, and he will learn, little by little, the combina- 
tions and conditions necessary to artistic beauty. Like the Type- 
writer, the Telephone and the Bicycle, the Kodak has come to stay. 
Let us welcome it, and buy it for our good boys and girls, in the 
place of shot guns and chewing gum. 

THE COLUMBIAN EXPOSITION. 

The great Columbian Exposition is upon us, and the sixty 
years of practice and observation which the American Institute has 
given us should teach us how to forecast its blessings and how to 
promote its usefulness and glory. Some of us have felt that a 
great wrong was committed when Chicago secured what belonged 
of right to New York — the location of this "Greatest Show on 
Earth," and I don't doubt that during the past two years many 
tired and anxious men of that Western town have wished, from the 
bottom of their hearts, that we had secured the elephant. But the 
time has passed for repining and indifference, and the World's Fair 
of 1893 is marked on Fate's calendar as the perfect fruit of our 
hundred years of National life. Chicago has not been false to her 
high behests, and neither will this great city be false to hers. 
The Columbian Exposition is not a Chicago affair. It belongs to 
the country. It belongs to us. It is in the direct line of all that 
the American Institute stands for, and the natural outcome of the 
great industrial progress which it has helped to promote. The 
celebration of our four-hundredth anniversary, by bringing together 
under benign conditions the best results of science, art and edu- 
cation, and intensifying it with the spirit of patriotism is an event 
which should touch the heart of every American, and call forth the 
profoundest sentiments of loyalty and love. It is of all things 
most fit that this celebration should begin to-day, as it has done, 
in the City of New York, and that it should be led by the children 
of our schools, who are so soon to take our places in the work of 
the world. The pageant which has this day filled our streets and 
gladdened our hearts is the noblest tribute which could be paid to 
the memory of Columbus, and the lessons of patriotism which it 
will leave in the hearts of our boys and girls can never be effaced. 

Into the work thus aptly begun let us enter with our whole 
hearts, taking whatever humble place may fall to us, and being 
thankful that our lot has been cast in a land where to be indus- 
trious is to be happy, and to be useful is to be great. 



EDUCATION FROM CON 
TACT WITH THINGS : : 

AN ADDRESS 



DELIVERED AT THE OPENING OF THE SIXTY-FIRST ANNUAL FAIR 

OF THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE, MONDAY EVENING 

OCTOBER TENTH EIGHTEEN HUNDRED AND 

NINETY-TWO 



BY 



S. S. PACKARD 



^ 



PRINTED UNDER THE DIRECTION OF THE 
BOARD OF MANAGERS 



NEW YORK 

1892 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



019 793 290 9 



.; V 






fit 



